The 2007–13 Financial Perspective: Domination of National Interests

Abstract

This article confirms the validity of the hypothesis that national interests were the driving force behind the process and outcome of negotiations for the EU's next financial perspective for 2007-13. The hypothesis is tested by comparing hypothetical coalitions based on quantified national interests (partial net budgetary balances) and the actual (documented) coalitions. Based on these results, the article also discusses implications of the 'net balances problem' for the 2008/09 EU budget review. Copyright (c) 2010 The Author(s). Journal compilation (c) 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The New Common Agricultural Policy: Ηow do Member States Respond to Flexibility?

“…At each iteration, the two clusters with the smallest increase in the overall sum of squares within the cluster distances were combined. 13 A dendrogram is used to visualize hierarchical clusters (Izsak et al, 2015;Rant and Mrak, 2010). It shows how many distinctive clusters can be visually identified (Malhotra, 2010).…”

“…Each case in a dendrogram typically comprises its own unique cluster at the bottom and is fusing with other cases progressively (see for example Figure WA3 in the online Appendix). A conclusion can be drawn based on the visual inspection of the dendrogram regarding the solutions that seem to yield well-separated clusters (Rant and Mrak, 2010). Wallonia, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, UK-England, UK-Northern Ireland, UK-Wales, Portugal, Romania and Sweden.…”

“…depending on their similarity in chosen parameters (in this case, the fields of flexibility) (Rant and Mrak, 2010). In the first stage, we employed an agglomerative hierarchical method 11 which initially treated each MS as a separate cluster, but then progressively grouped them into larger clusters, in successive iterations.…”

“…In the first stage, we employed an agglomerative hierarchical method 11 which initially treated each MS as a separate cluster, but then progressively grouped them into larger clusters, in successive iterations. 12 Then, with the help of an agglomerative hierarchical cluster schedule (Malhotra, 2010), complemented by the visual aid of a dendrogram 13 (Izsak et al, 2015;Rant and Mrak, 2010), we determined the optimal number of clusters. Therefore, in the second stage of the application, we used a non-hierarchical optimizing partitioning method (K-means cluster analysis), allowing for the MS re-assignment to different clusters (Izsak et al, 2015;Malhotra, 2010).…”

Reforming the Financing of the European Union: A Proposal

“…This relatively weak position of the Parliament compared to the Council helps to explain the persistence of redistributive policies with large national visibility, rather than spending on items of EU wide interest. There is evidence that the net-receiver and net-payer positions explain preferences and coalition formation in the Council much better than the party orientation of national governments (Zimmer et al, 2005;Rant and Mrak, 2010). By contrast, for the voting behavior in the Parliament transnational party lines are more important (Hix 2002;Hix and Noury, 2008;Hix et al 2007;Kreppel and Tsebelis 1999).…”